Circular   No    11,  Reviscd 


United  States  Department  of  Agriculture, 

BUREAU    oi     INIOMOLOGY, 

IfbWXmy.>:nt>.iM..I,,4.i.t  und  Chid  .1  B 

THK  B08I-GH1PEH. 

HcuTodaatylut  mbtpinont  Fal 

B]    I  .   II.  CHITMHDBir, 

/,   Chargt  of  Truck  Crop  and  Stored  Produei  I 

\i:i;u.  APPEARANCE   AND   METHOD  OF   WORK 

At  ul)«>ut  the  time  of  the  blossoming  «>f  the  grapevine  and  the  garden 
i  long-legged  beetle  <>f  a  light  yellowiah-brown  color,  called  the  i 


.«».«)   .».  Female  beetle;  b.  anterior  part  ol 
m»ic:  <-.  pyaldtam  ol  male;  J.  abdomen  of  male;  '.  larva:  /.  pupa.    All  enlarged. 

(From  K 

chafer  or  "rose-bug,"  makes  its  appearance  in  certain  sections  of  the 
country,  and  strips  the  vines  and  hushes  of  blossoms  and  foliage.     This 
heetle  is  ahout  one-third  of  an  inch  in  length  and  may  he  recognized 
imparison  with  the  accompanying  illustration  (tig.  I,  a). 

These  insects  appear  suddenly  and  in  vast  sarins,  in  certain  years. 
usually  toward  the  middle  . -f  June  in  the  northern  States  and  about 
two  week-  earlier  in  their  southern  range,  and  overrun  vineyard  and 
orchard,  nursery  and  garden.  In  about  a  month  or  six  weeks  from  the 
time  of  their  first  arrival,  generally  after  they  have  done  a  va.-t  amount 
of  damage,  the  hectics  disappear  a-  suddenly  as  they  came. 

DISTRIBUTION,   POOD   PLANTS,   AND   BAVAl 
The  rose-chafer  occurs  in  the  North,  from   Canada   and   Maine  south- 
ward   to    Virginia    and    Tennessee,    and    westward    to    Oklahoma   and 


r 


Colorado,  being  practically  restricted  to  the  Upper  Austral  life  zone,  ex- 
cept in  a  few  localities,  notably  in  New  England,  where  it  has  invaded 
the  Transition  zone.  It  is  particularly  injurious  in  the  States  of  Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode  Island,  Delaware,  and  Ohio,  and  has  been  reported  as 
very  destructive  in  portions  of  New  York,  Maryland,  Virginia,  Illinois, 
Indiana,  Kansas,  Nebraska,  southern  Michigan,  and  Vermont.  Light, 
sandy  regions  are  greatly  preferred  by  the  insects  as  breeding  grounds, 
and  clay  lands,  unless  near  sandy  soil,  are  seldom  troubled  with  them. 

According  to  Harris,  the  rose-chafer,  for  some  time  after  it  was  first 
noticed,  confined  its  ravages  to  the  blossoms  of  the  rose.  There  is  a 
record,  however,  of  its  having  been  destructive  to  grapes  as  early  as 
1810.  In  later  years  it  has  extended  its  range  of  food  plants,  until  now 
it  is  nearly  omnivorous.  The  grapevine  and  the  rose  especially  suffer 
from  its  depredations,  but  it  is  almost  equally  destructive  to  the  apple, 
pear,  cherry,  peach,  plum,  and  other  fruit,  shade,  and  forest  trees.  In 
times  of  great  abundance  these  insects  completely  destroy  flowers  and 
other  ornamental  plants  of  many  sorts,  even  attacking  corn,  wheat,  and 
grasses,  berries,  peas,  beans,  and  nearly  all  garden  fruits  and  vegetables. 
Almost  anything  green  is  relished. 

The  beetles  do  not  confine  their  ravages  to  any  particular  portion  of 
a  plant,  but  consume  blossoms,  leaves,  fruit,  and  all  alike.  In  their 
attacks  upon  the  grape  they  first  devour  the  blossoms,  then  the  leaves, 
which  they  completely  strip,  leaving  only  a  thin  network,  and  later  the 
young  berries  are  eaten.  Whole  vineyards  and  orchards  are  often 
devastated,  and  the  fruit  crop  of  large  sections  of  country  destroyed. 
It  is  no  uncommon  sight  to  see  every  young  apple  on  a  tree  completely 
covered  and  obscured  from  view  by  a  sprawling,  struggling  mass  of 
beetles. 

Since  the  late  eighties  the  rose-chafer  has  been  particularly  injurious 
in  the  grape-growing  region  of  southern  New  Jersej-,  and  has  been  the 
subject  of  extensive  research  and  experiment  by  Dr.  J.  B.  Smith,  ento- 
mologist of  the  New  Jersey  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  who  has 
added  much  to  our  knowledge  of  the  pest. 

NATURAL  HISTORY  AND   HABITS. 

The  rose-chafer,  as  already  stated,  appears  earty  in  June,  the  date 
varying  somewhat  according  to  locality  and  season,  and  mates  and 
begins  feeding  soon  after  emerging  from  the  ground.  For  from  four  to 
six  weeks  after  their  appearance  the  beetles  continue  feeding,  almost 
constantly  paired.  The  female  deposits  her  eggs  singly,  from  twenty- 
four  to  thirty-six  in  number,  a  few  inches  beneath  the  surface  of  the 
earth,  and  in  about  two  or  three  weeks'  time  they  hatch  and  the  young 
larvae  or  grubs  begin  feeding  on  such  tender  rootlets,  preferabby  of  grass, 
as  are  in  reach.  In  autumn  thejT  have  reached  maturity  and  present 
the  appearance  shown  in  the  illustration  at  /.     They  are  yellowish  white 


3 

in  color,  with  a  pale  brown  head.  Late  in  autumn  they  descend  lower 
into  the  earth,  beyond  the  reach  <>f  frost,  «-:icli  ^ml>  forming  ■  little 
earthen  cell  in  which  it  paesee  the  winter,  and  ascending  in  the  early 
spring.  Later  in  the  Bpring,  in  April  or  earl;  May.  they  transform  to 
pupa?,  and  in  from  two  to  four  weeks  afterwards  the  beetli  i  ,  dig 

their  way  out  of  the  ground,  and  renew  their  destructive  work.  A  sin- 
gle generation  of  the  Bpeciee  is  produced  in  a  year,  and  about  three 
weeks  is  the  average  duration  of  lift-  for  an  individual  insect. 

REMEDIES. 

The  rose-chafer  is  one  of  our  most  difficult  insect  enemii  mbal 

successfully.     Almost  method   thai    has    ever   been   employed 

against  other  insects  has  been  tried  against  the  rose-chafer,  and  much 
has  been  written  on  this  head,  but  a  thoroughly  successful  remedy  is 
yet  to  be  discovered  for  the  insects  when  they  appear  in  excessive  num- 
i  year  or  two  some  agricultural  writer  comes  to  the  front 

With  B  new  and  successful  remedy,  Init  when  tested  on  a  large  scale,  in 
dly    infested    vineyard    or   orchard,    these    remedies    are    not    found 

satisfactory. 

The  difficulty  is  that  any  application  that  may  be  made  is  onsuci 
fill  unless  applied  almost  continually.  The  arsenicals  will  kill  the 
hectic,  hut  are  of  little  value  when  the  insects  an-  abundant,  because 
of  the.slow  action  of  tin-  poison.  The  blossoms  are  entirely  destroyed 
before  it  takes  effect,  and  the  dead  are  constantly  being  recruited  by 
others  that  come  from  the  ground  or  fly  from  neighboring  places.  Every 
beetle  on  a  plant  might  he  destroyed  one  day,  hut  on  the  day  following 
the  plant  would  he  completely  covered  again.  It  is  difficult  to  spray 
an  entire  garden  or  vineyard  so  thai  every  hud  and  blossom  will  be 
coated  with  the  poison.  It  is  possible  that  a  heavy  application  of 
arsenate  of  lead,  say  ■">  to  <;  pound-  to  50  gallons  of  water  or  bordeaux 
mixture,  will   largely  protect    the  vines,  and   this  plan  should    he  tested 

by  vineyardists  confronted  with  this  pest.     Very  thorough  applications 

should  he  made  upon  first  si^'iis  of  the  insects  and  repeated  as  necessary. 

The  various  compounds  of  copper,  lime,  kerosene,  and  pyrethrum, 
hot  water,  and  other  vaunted  "sure"  remedies  have  failed  to  come  up 
to  expectations  when  subjected  to  a  rigid  test.  Some  BUbstances, 
pyrethrum  for  example,  stupefy  the   ii  >r  S    short   time,  but    in   a 

few  minutes  they  recover  and  are  soon  feeding  again.  Hot  water  is 
not  effective  because  of  the  impossibility  of  applying  it  in  a  spray  or 
jet  at  a  sufficiently  high  temperature  to  kill  the  insects. 

Decoctions  of  tobacco  and  quassia,  hellebore,  alum,  kainit,  ami  a 
number  of  proprietary  remedies  that  have  been  tried  have  no  apparent 
effect  on  the  rose-chafer. 

The  old-fashioned  remedy  of  hand-picking  is  of  service  when  the 
beetles  infest  rosebushes  or  other  low-growing  plants.     They  may  also 


UNIVERSITY  OF  FLORIDA 


3  1262  09216  4705 

be  jarred  from  trees  and  bushes  onto  sheets  saturated  with  kerosene, 
but  these  methods  are  tedious  and  must  be  practiced  daily  in  early 
morning  or  toward  sundown  to  be  effective.  A  number  of  useful 
mechanical  appliances  formed  on  the  plan  of  a  funnel  or  inverted 
umbrella,  with  a  bag  or  can  containing  kerosene  at  the  bottom,  have 
been  devised  for  the  collection  of  the  beetles  as  they  are  jarred  from 
the  plants. 

Choice  plants  may  be  securely  protected  by  a  covering  of  netting, 
and  when  the  process  of  bagging  the  grapes  may  profitably  be  employed, 
this  method  should  be  followed.  Bagging,  as  is  well  known,  is  a  pre- 
ventive of  rot,  and  in  addition,  grapes  so  protected  produce  fruit  of 
superior  appearance  and  quality. 

Small  orchards,  gardens,  or  vineyards  may  be  protected,  at  least 
from  the  first  arriving  hordes  of  the  chafers,  by  planting  about  them 
early-fiowering  plants  that  particularly  attract  the  beetles.  Spiraeas, 
deutzias,  andromeda,  magnolias,  blackberries,  and  white  roses  are 
especially  useful  as  counter  attractives.  The  beetles  swarm  on  the 
flowers  of  these  plants  in  preference  to  many  varieties  of  grape  and 
other  fruits,  and  when  thus  massed  in  great  numbers,  their  destruction 
by  the  use  of  collectors  or  other  mechanical  means  is  greatly  facilitated. 

In  addition  to  the  use  of  any  of  the  methods  described  above,  injury 
to  vineyards  may  be  appreciably  lessened  by  preventing  the  breeding  of 
the  insects  upon  or  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  vineyard.  All 
ground  which  might  serve  as  a  breeding  place  and  which  it  is  possible 
so  to  treat,  should  be  plowed  and  harrowed  early  in  May  or  saturated 
with  a  10  per  cent  kerosene-soap  emulsion  for  the  destruction  of  the 
larvse  and  pupae.  The  least  possible  amount  of  light  sandy  soil  should 
be  left  in  sod,  only  the  heaviest  land  being  used  for  grass.  It  is  well 
also  to  stimulate  the  vines  by  the  use  of  kainit  and  other  fertilizers. 

Whatever  practice  of  a  remedial  nature  is  undertaken,  whether  col- 
lecting or  spraying,  it  should  be  begun  at  the  first  onset  of  the  beetles 
and  continued  until  their  disappearance.  Nor  should  work  be  confined 
entirely  to  such  useful  plants  as  it  is  desired  to  preserve.  Many  weeds 
and  wild  plants,  notably  the  ox-ejTe  daisy  and  sumac,  are  special 
favorites  of  this  species,  and  when  practicable,  the  beetles  should  be 
destroyed  on  them,  to  prevent  their  spreading  to  cultivated  land. 

If  persistent  and  combined  effort  on  the  part  of  the  fruit  growers  of 
a  limited  region  were  made  against  this  insect,  its  numbers  might,  in 
a  few  seasons,  be  so  diminished  as  to  secure  practical  immunity  from 
injury  for  several  years. 

Approved: 

James  Wilson, 

Secretary  of  A(jri<>ultiire. 

Washington,  D.  C,  May  28,  1909. 

O 


